Uefa Rule Out European Super League Breakaway

Third European Competition Set To Be Announced

Two of Uefa’s top officials have ruled out a breakaway European Super League. However, the European football calendar looks set to be reformed from 2024 with the prospect of less domestic football and more games in Europe.

German magazine Der Spiegel claimed earlier this month to have got hold of documents showing that plans for a breakaway league of Europe’s top clubs could begin as soon as 2021. The documents purported to state that 11 of the continent’s top sides would be immune from relegation from such a league for a period of at least 20 years and that a further five ‘guest’ teams would supplement the league each season.

But Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and Andrea Agnelli, the chairman of the influential European Club Association (ECA) which represents over 200 of the continent’s leading sides, have ruled out the prospect of a European Super League.

“We have some ideas,” Ceferin told the BBC. “All I can say is that any Super League is out of the question. Participation stays and everybody will have an opportunity to compete in every European competition.”

Uefa look set to announce the creation of a third European competition when they meet in Dublin next month. The 32-team tournament will mean that 96 clubs will be playing in European football once pre-qualification is complete.

Agnelli insisted that some of European football’s fallen giants plus clubs from countries that have struggled in Champions League football must not be left behind.

“It will be our duty to safeguard the great heritages of European football but on the other side I think we are very well aware that we have to safeguard markets, we have to think about upcoming markets,” he said.

“We have to think about Poland. We have to think about [countries like] Turkey, we have to think about Russia. Fans can rest assured that if we put our hands to making a new product it’s because we want to make sure that fans across Europe engage.”

But Ceferin insists that more European football is the way forward.

“The best platforms can only come through international competitions and that is why increasing participation increasing inclusion it is key to all of us,” he added.

“Now the most relevant games are the top of the ladder games. If you look at the Champions League final in comparison to the Super Bowl it beats it by a factor of 1.5 to 1.

“So the spectators of that game are on a global scale. We have to build on that to make sure we have the resources to allocate throughout Europe to allow every single club, in every single European country, to have a proper international platform.”